Fayette County Democratic Party Dinner- with fireworks (small display)

The Fayette County Dems had their annual dinner last Sunday. It was the first and only time I’ve had to pay my way to speak :-) which was quite OK- the money supports the party.

It was a full house at “Our Place” restaurant, with about 100 people in attendance. They take their politics much more seriously in Fayette County- this was the biggest group of Dems to hear the candidates on the trail.

All the dems were there except Olivia Freeman. I had to borrow Tom McMasters’ footage of my 5 minutes because my Kodak Zi-8 locked up just before I spoke (and no, that’s not why Kodak is in bankruptcy- I still think the Zi-8 is a great tool for the price). The most important part of the evening started with me bringing up the Montgomery County Dems’ endorsement of Sharen Neuhardt in the primary for her ability to win by raising dirty money, and then followed with a question from Ryan Steele about why she didn’t even file on the first deadline.

Starting about 4:22 into it- he asks the question- is Sharen running to represent us, or just to win?

The party chairperson was a bit taken aback by Dems attacking Dems and it becoming a debate at the dinner, for that I’m sorry, but whoever they back is going to have to fight Mike Turner (who has yet to show up to anything other than fundraisers to collect big checks). She offered Sharen a chance to respond- Sharen declined. I might have audio of that on the tape- but haven’t had time to check. I’ll try to get that posted tomorrow as a separate video.

Since this was just a few days after the Montgomery County Dems’ private club screening committee had endorsed Sharen, I started right out with my opinion of that practice, so the people of Fayette County would know how things will be influenced in their district as long as these new lines are drawn. The Fayette Dems who are in OH-10 will have undue influence exerted by a group of people over whom they have no control in their choice of representatives to the House. Seeing that a candidate who wins Montgomery county and do well in Greene can win the seat, their votes get marginalized by this unethical practice.

Here is Tom McMasters with his professor’s dissection of the financial mess our government is in:

Sharen Neuhardt- sounds like a broken record, but at least had some signs to distribute at the event, and since Fayette used to be part of the OH-7, she was a known quantity to some.

Mack Van Allen- who had his yellow and red signs for the first time at an event. He was brief- on the advice of his wife who became great friends with my significant other over the course of dinner.

I apologize for not getting this post up earlier.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed! If you wish to support this blog and independent journalism in Dayton, consider donating. All of the effort that goes into writing posts and creating videos comes directly out of my pocket, so any amount helps!